Message filters don't work automatically

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beskeptical
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Joined: December 13th, 2014, 10:14 pm

Message filters don't work automatically

Post by beskeptical »

Does anyone know how to make Thunderbird's defective message filters actually work automatically instead of manually?

I'm running the latest version of Thunderbird with a fully updated Mac OS X, with two email accounts. Filters work just fine when I run them manually but do nothing to filter emails automatically as they come in. My only guess is that it has something to do with the filter before or after junk mail classification setting, but I don't know why this should make a difference.
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tanstaafl
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Re: Message filters don't work automatically

Post by tanstaafl »

They work for me, and I haven't noticed other recent threads about that problem. However, my impression is that a small percentage of users have run into similar problems for years. The normal order of processing is:

Message filters
"Trust header" (set by SpamAssassin etc.)
"Adaptive junk" (junk mail controls)

All that I can suggest is that you try deleting all of the filters for that account and experiment with creating different filters. You might eventually discover that certain ones don't work if certain other ones exist.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=948418
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=830482
beskeptical
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Re: Message filters don't work automatically

Post by beskeptical »

Thank you. My filters seem to be working -- though not 100% reliably -- after instructing Thunderbird to filter after junk classification. This is at best completely counter-intuitive, and I hope developers redesign it, or make it clearer. It's also hard to fathom why it should matter.
beskeptical
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Re: Message filters don't work automatically

Post by beskeptical »

Despite all my efforts, my filters do not work on my secondary email account at all, and some do not work on my primary account. There should be no conflict among them. They do not apply to the same domains. This is simply a Thunderbird bug and defect. I can tell they are set right because they work manually. Maybe Thunderbird developers will fix this some day.
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DanRaisch
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Re: Message filters don't work automatically

Post by DanRaisch »

Are those non-working filters running against the Inbox folder or some other folder?
beskeptical
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Re: Message filters don't work automatically

Post by beskeptical »

They're running against the inbox folder.
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DanRaisch
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Re: Message filters don't work automatically

Post by DanRaisch »

POP or IMAP type account(s)?
What are the filter actions involved? Testing by "From" or by multiple criteria? Moving messages? Deleting messages?
beskeptical
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Re: Message filters don't work automatically

Post by beskeptical »

Hey, thanks for following up with me. This is with POP settings.
The instructions are simple, e.g. match a phrase in "from" and move to a specific folder. Criteria set to match any.
As I mentioned, I know the basic instructions are sound because they work manually.
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DanRaisch
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Re: Message filters don't work automatically

Post by DanRaisch »

Do you regularly compact the message folders?
How many messages are currently in the Inbox folder?
beskeptical
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Re: Message filters don't work automatically

Post by beskeptical »

I never compact the folders, and there are about 70 messages under one account and about 15 under the other.
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DanRaisch
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Re: Message filters don't work automatically

Post by DanRaisch »

I never compact the folders,


First backup your profile -- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_backup
Close Thunderbird and navigate to your Profile Folder ( http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Folder ). Find the files with the extension msf, such as Inbox.msf. Note that there will be sets of two files with the name but only one of these will have the MSF extension. Delete the files with the MSF extension. Restart Thunderbird, compact all folders, and see if things are back to normal. Note that the MSF files do NOT contain your messages. They are, for lack of a better term, an index file and will be recreated by Thunderbird as required.
beskeptical
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Joined: December 13th, 2014, 10:14 pm

Re: Message filters don't work automatically

Post by beskeptical »

DanRaisch,

Thanks for the suggestions, but I'm skeptical that will make a difference, as numerous filters work, and the dysfunctional filters work if I manually apply them. I'm also afraid of destroying settings it took a long time to create.

it appears TB is just incredibly buggy in this department. For instance, the tool, Run Filters on Folder, does absolutely nothing.

Hopefully the developers are paying attention and will fix these glitches.
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DanRaisch
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Re: Message filters don't work automatically

Post by DanRaisch »

This forum is not run by or formally associated with Mozilla. We're an independent user-helping-user community and there are usually no developers here.

Unless the filters that ARE working are running against exactly the same folders as those that aren't working, you are not really comparing like with like. Not sure what settings you are afraid of losing but deleting the .msf file will reset the sort order of the folder(s) for which the index files are rebuilt.
beskeptical
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Joined: December 13th, 2014, 10:14 pm

Re: Message filters don't work automatically

Post by beskeptical »

Dear DanRisch,
I'd like to try the steps you suggest, but the profile backup link is to Firefox not Thunderbird. Any other resources?
I understand this is not a developer forum, and I'm very appreciative of the help I get here. I hope developers are lurking though, because they might learn something about systemic defects in their software.
beskeptical
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Joined: December 13th, 2014, 10:14 pm

Re: Message filters don't work automatically

Post by beskeptical »

Oh, I see. The profile means...all my messages. Those are reasonably well backed up.
I have a huge number of .msf files as I have a lot of folders.
There's got to be an easier way to make Thunderbird's filters work properly.
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